America's Best New Cupcakes

With America's cupcake obsession showing no signs of waning, talented pastry chefs at some of the best bakeries in the country are crafting outstanding variations with locally grown fruits, intense dark chocolate and other carefully selected ingredients. —Reporting by Alessandra Bulow

At their brilliant little bakery, co-owners and cookbook authors Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito interpret each of their fantastic layer cakes into cupcakes. For their seasonal Wintermint cupcake, the duo starts with the same dark chocolate cake used in their Wintermint layer cake. “It’s superchocolaty because we use dark cocoa powder and melted chocolate,” says Lewis. “Most places will just use one of them, but by using both I feel like the chocolate really comes through.” The cupcake is then filled with chocolate ganache and frosted with peppermint vanilla buttercream. bakednyc.com
bakednyc.com